My Thoughts on Send Help
If Sam Raimi’s is name attached to something, chances are very high I am going to watch it, and Send Help was always going to be to watched, as I loved the trailers and clips that had been released already.
Two coworkers end up stranded on a remote island after a plane crash, and the movie spends its time watching how their dynamic changes when the usual office hierarchy no longer exists - simple in description, but less simple in execution.
Linda is quiet, meticulous, and clearly the type of worker who gets overlooked, where she’s been at her company for years, always doing the work no one notices, always following the rules, and always expecting that her efforts will eventually be recognized.
Brad, meanwhile, is loud, obnoxious, and unashamedly entitled, as he inherited the company from his father and acts like the world owes him deference - Brad ignores Linda’s ideas, talks over her, and generally assumes his voice is the only one that matters.
Then the plane crashes, and the story pivots quickly from workplace tension to full-on survival horror, and yet, that abrupt shift works in the film’s favor, as it forces the characters to confront what kind of people they are when all the usual rules no longer apply.
Linda immediately adapts, as she sets up shelter, finds food, and organizes their tiny corner of the island without a word of fanfare, while Brad, on the other hand, is useless - or, more accurately, he’s convinced that usefulness is optional.
He complains, fumbles, and refuses to acknowledge that the rules of the office no longer apply, and watching him slowly realize that he can’t bully his way out of every problem is entertaining in a grim sort of way.
You don't feel any sympathy for him, but you will find his unraveling fascinating, as the camera frequently lingers on Brad’s expressions as he struggles with tasks that Linda handles with calm efficiency.
The film does slows down a bit at times, where Linda and Brad establish a rhythm, where she teaches him survival skills, warns him about dangers on the island, and gradually, a kind of cooperation emerges, but this section of the film felt a bit repetitive, and at times, even if the slowdown makes sense.
Send Help isn’t interested in rescue as a goal - it’s interested in stripping the characters down to their essential selves and seeing how they interact when all societal structures vanish.
Hints of Linda’s more aggressive side start appearing subtly too, as while she comes across calm, she's also calculating, especially when she arms herself or tests Brad in small ways, and this allows Linda to remain fairly complicated character.
The final third of the film is the best part of Send Help though - messy, violent, and darkly funny, and has Raimi's name written all over it.
Linda’s plan comes into focus, Brad’s desperation peaks, and the confrontation between them is loud and chaotic, where Raimi’s direction is precise, capturing the physicality and the emotional weight of the conflict.
You will probably flinch, laugh and occasionally think Well, that happened.
Both McAdams and O’Brien are really good as well, and commit fully to every scene, where McAdams allows Linda to become frighteningly competent and cold without ever making her unrelatable, while O’Brien lets Brad unravel in all the best ways, even if I didn't like that Brad’s suffering sometimes felt prolonged for effect, but I could see why the film chose that route.
Send Help is a movie that doesn’t sort characters into neat categories - Linda isn’t punished for being smart and capable, and Brad isn’t rewarded for being entitled and arrogant it just presents them as humans, capable of both cruelty and resourcefulness, and lets you figure out what to think.
It’s also thoughtful in a subtle way - if you remove all the usual rules, what comes out?
In Send Help, the answer isn’t simple, and that makes it more interesting than a lot of survival horror-thrillers.